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Santana to start Royals' post-break rotation

Santana to start Royals' post-break rotation

7/6/13: Ervin Santana hurls an impressive seven innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and striking out five against the A's

By Dick Kaegel
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MLB.com |

CLEVELAND -- The Royals' rotation coming out of the All-Star break is set with Ervin Santana due to pitch the first game on Friday night against Detroit at Kauffman Stadium.

Jeremy Guthrie will start on Saturday night and James Shields on Sunday against the Tigers. Then Wade Davis and Bruce Chen will start on Monday and Tuesday nights, respectively, against Baltimore in the first two of four games against the Orioles, also in Kansas City.

Originally, manager Ned Yost had Shields pitching Sunday's last game before the break in Cleveland and then opening the second half against Detroit. But he decided that caused too much down time for Santana and Guthrie.

"I had Shields coming back on a five [fifth day after pitching], Santana on a nine, Guthrie on a nine and I said, you know, that's crazy," Yost said. "So, we manipulated it this way to give everybody the equal amount of off-days, the equal amount of rest and Santana goes to an eight, now Guthrie goes to a seven, Shields goes to a seven."

Well, almost equal.

"The Tigers did the same thing," Yost said.

Detroit will start, in order, Anibal Sanchez, Justin Verlander and Doug Fister over the weekend in KC.

The Royals will hold an optional workout at 6 p.m. CT on Thursday, the last day of the All-Star break.

Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.